Duck Hunt Mastery Does Not Prepare Man For Real Thing

You may debate whether some video games train people to commit real acts of aggression. A Canadian newspaperman provides evidence that Duck Hunt is capable of no such feat.

In the Friday sports section of the Daily Herald-Tribune of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, writer Pete Lucarotti boasts that he once hit more than 1,000 clay pigeons while playing Duck Hunt on the Nintendo Entertainment system. "All from the other side of the room," he adds. "Not cheating by holding the gun an inch away from the screen."

Lucarotti went to the local Wapiti Shooters Club and tried the real thing against real clay pigeons (also known as fake real pigeons, perhaps?).

Duck Hunt did not translate to real life shooting. At the club, much more missing than shooting occurred. He talks about wielding a shotgun:

Real clay pigeons move fast, way faster than what I was expecting. All I ended up doing was trying to guess where the bird would go, aiming my gun there, closing my eyes and shooting.

Not really the strategy of a master marksman.

There were stations where the members of the group I was with were all shooting a perfect four for four and I didn't hit any.

So I was somewhat relieved when we moved on. We still had shotguns, but this time the pigeons were being shot from eight different locations and some were travelling at a more manageable speed.
It didn't matter.

He finally hits four, but he also is scolded for flinching. Maybe he needed a dog to run across the screen? Or some ducks?

Comments

Cerzel Guest

Oct 27, 2009, 10:49am

I went to an air rifle range once. On my first attempt, I got the best score in the place, against people who were members and had been going for years.
Mind you, this is just shooting at a piece of paper 20 metres away with a target on it.

That's pretty cool, actually. Video games definitely prepare your hand/eye coordination, but there's not much that prepares you for the recoil of handling proper firearms, especially shotguns. I'm not surprised he couldn't hit anything, they kick like a mule. I had a bruised shoulder for a week after the first time I shot one.

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